Package-inside-a-vacuum-sealed-package system for probiotics, dietary supplements, and other live products

ABSTRACT

A bottle-within-a-bottle technology is presented herein, where the outer container is vacuum sealed to protect against oxygen, heat, light, moisture etc. and to extend the shelf-life of probiotics, dietary supplements, or any other live (“life”) products within the inner packaging. This invention is an innovative method of packaging for live or sensitive products. The vacuum sealing technique is used to obtain the beneficial effects of live products. Vacuum-sealing enhances the shelf-life of beneficial microorganisms which must survive for the good gut health of the consumer. The bottle-within-a-bottle technology does not need to change industry standards. The bottle-within-a-bottle technology conceals the deformed container, which is inevitable with direct vacuuming. The bottle-within-a-bottle technology prevents powder leakage of capsules due to air pressure changes.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

My invention consists of a new way of packaging probiotics and other live products for the dietary supplements and pharmaceutical market. It is a vacuum-sealed bottle, which contains another traditional bottle inside it.

My invention is designed to solve existing problems within the dietary industry pertaining to the sustainability of CFUs (colony forming units).

My vacuum packaging is different from traditional vacuum sealing, which is now the standard for the storage of various kinds of live products.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

My invention comes from a concern for the survival of live (“life”) products, such as probiotics. With my invention, I went a step further to conserve the strength of these useful live organisms to yield their maximum potency when consumed. My invention curtails the rate of decline of live products.

Over the years, the standard of packaging in the dietary supplement market has been a single container. My method can convert any single-bottle-container packaging to bottle-in-a-vacuum-sealed-bottle packaging. This vacuum sealing technique is different from any other conventional dietary supplement packaging because it is a container inside a container, and it is vacuum sealed.

Vacuum sealing is a unique innovation as compared to the traditional means of packaging dietary supplements and live(“life”) contents. This process is vital in maintaining the shelf life of CFUs (found in probiotics and other live products). Recent studies on probiotics show that the efficacy of live products depends on proper packaging that will control for temperature, moisture, and oxygen. Controlling for these factors are possible with vacuum sealing.

There are also thousands of articles and testing reports showing that by the time probiotics are consumed by the customer, the CFU/g (colony forming units) are significantly reduced. That is, by the time we consume probiotics, most of the living cells are dead or nearly dead. This is an existing problem with live products in general as they consist of living cells, which all die very quickly if not packaged correctly. Without proper packaging, consumers do not end up getting the full benefit of the product, they purchased.

One reason live products die is due to exposure during poor packaging and transportation. As a finished product, most live products go from a manufacturing site to a UPS/FedEx hub, to a distributing warehouse, to a UPS/FedEx hub again, to retail/online stores; then, they stay on shelf for a few months until finally getting into the consumer's hand. Therefore, the delivery vehicle carrying live products that should be able to transport billions of useful bacteria end up usually with hundreds or even close to a zero count. Thus, the main problems are poor package, storage and transportation.

The rate of decline increases in viable CFU (colony forming units) numbers even when live products such as probiotics are stored in a refrigerator. There are three major reasons for this:

-   -   1) Oxygen     -   2) Temperature     -   3) Moisture

Oxygen:

Live products are facultative anaerobic, meaning they live in an absence of oxygen. The presence of oxygen can kill a live product (such as a probiotic) due to an accelerated rate of disease-causing bacteria. Vacuum sealing—also known as “reduced oxygen packaging”—inhibits the growth of many types of bacteria and fungi that cause the probiotics to deteriorate. The reduced oxygen environment created through vacuum sealing means the anaerobic live cells die more slowly; therefore, the product's shelf life gets significantly extended.

Temperature:

Many probiotic bacteria are naturally sensitive to heat. Heat can kill living organisms. In most of case, at 70° Farenheit, probiotics live cells decrease at a rate of 10-15% per month. High heat can also degrade the viability of these organisms. Heat transfer to the packaged probiotic bottles is possible in various ways.

-   -   Conduction: The transfer of energy between objects that are in         physical contact.     -   Convection: The transfer of energy between an object and its         environment due to fluid motion.     -   Radiation: The transfer of energy by the emission of         electromagnetic radiation.     -   Vacuum sealing blocks the heat transfer from conduction and         convection. It helps with some heat transfer by radiation. My         vacuum sealing in which the bottle containing the active         ingredient is packed in another glass vacuum-sealed bottle,         blocking the transfer of conduction and convection. And also         blocks radiation partially.

Moisture:

Moisture is another problem for live (“life”) products. Moisture activates the bacteria and essentially starts the process of degradation, but this activation is intended to occur after ingestion. Vacuum-sealed packaging is one of the best ways to shield live products from moisture.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Invention: a bottle-inside-a-vacuum-sealed-bottle packaging system. The vacuum-sealed packaging is a bottle-inside-a-vacuum-sealed-bottle technology that increases the longevity and viability of the shelf-life for probiotics and other live (“life”) products.

Purpose: to further preserve the viability of probiotics, dietary supplements, and any other live (“life”) products against external factors such as oxygen, heat, humidity, and light. The stability, thus the potency of the products when stored in this vacuum-sealed package will be enhanced. It is essential that the CFU (live colony forming units) count be as high as possible for the competent activity of probiotics. My invention preserves the maximum benefit of the live (“life”) product.

Specifically, this, the first application for my invention consists of a vacuum-sealed-amber-glass container that insulates a traditional bottle inside it, protecting it from oxygen, humidity, and heat. While the outer container is made of amber glass, the inner bottle is made of plastic as any traditional supplement bottle seen on the shelf. The inner bottle contains the probiotics, protecting them from exposure, giving them a longer shelf life.

People have been using dietary supplements for more than 85 years. Not only does this vacuum sealing technique solve the problems of exposure that come with conventional packaging, but it is also the first of its kind in the dietary supplements industry.

The advantage of my solution is the fact that a traditional bottle can be housed inside the outer bottle, which is vacuum sealed.

Without bottle-in-bottle packaging, in the process of vacuum sealing, a traditional bottle becomes misshapen and looks deformed (FIG. 5).

Also, my invention prevents capsule leakage during the vacuum sealing process. With my invention, any traditional bottle can be placed within a larger vacuum-sealed bottle neither damaging the contents, nor the image of the product (FIG. 4).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a pictorial representation of vacuum sealed probiotic packing showing outer container that is vacuum tight, resulting in efficient probiotics. FIG. 1 illustrates how vacuum-sealing technology can be used for better storage. The outer container is vacuum-sealed, so that the inner container is protected against external effects.

FIG. 2 is an exploded view illustrating my vacuum sealing package with another bottle inside.

FIG. 3 is a partially exploded view illustrating my vacuum sealing package with another bottle inside.

FIG. 4 is an assembled view illustrating my vacuum sealing package with another bottle inside.

FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 illustrate my real product. The vacuum sealing of the outer container is made with glass and the inside package is made with plastic to keep it safe from all external factors that would ordinarily affect the product. The labelling is visible on both the inner and outer bottle.

FIG. 5 illustrates a traditional bottle after vacuum sealing.

FIG. 6 is a chart illustrating the advantages of bottle in vacuum-sealed bottle packaging over conventional packaging techniques.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

I am the first one in the entire dietary supplement and pharmaceutical manufacturing industry to introduce a bottle-in-a-bottle vacuum sealing technology. This technology is useful for various types of dispensary such as capsules, tablets, powders, soft gels, gummies, or even for liquid inside a bottle or a jar or a bag. The purpose of the vacuum-sealed storage is to preserve the potency of all live (“life”) products.

The inner package is placed within a larger, outer package, both of which can be a bottle, jar, or any other suitable container that is made with any type of plastic, glass, special paper, wood, or type of metal.

The outer container is vacuum sealed. The outer container holds the inner bottle therefore offers double protection for probiotics (or any other live products) from oxygen, heat and moisture.

In use the cap or lid is opened, releasing the vacuum, and the inner package is retrieved from inside the outer package, so that the product can be consumed.

The reason for a bottle-in-a-bottle packaging is that this invention does not need to change the existing supplement industry's set up (no embedded cost). The inner bottle exists at present as a traditional bottle.

When plastic bottles vacuum sealed, the bottle become deformed. My bottle-in-a-bottle technology overcomes the problem of deformity seen with a traditional bottle. 95% of package in supplements industry are using plastic bottle.

My bottle-in-a-bottle technology also overcomes the problem of capsule leakage due to the change in air pressure from the vacuum sealing of a glass bottle.

This is the first-time vacuum sealing technology in dietary supplement industry. It has been used by this invention to solve the problem of live product potency loss, a problem in the dietary supplement industry.

Factors such as exposure to oxygen, moisture, or temperature fluctuations, are minimized with the vacuum container storage.

This type of packaging reduces atmospheric oxygen, limiting the growth of aerobic bacteria or fungi, and prevents the evaporation of vulnerable components.

This type of packaging prevents heat transfer via conduction and convection, ensuring the survival of live microbes.

This type of packaging shields live microbes from moisture, preventing the activation of bacteria and fungi.

The vacuum-sealing works as follows:

The content of live products, be it probiotics, dietary supplements, or other live products are inside an inner bottle with a protective outer bottle that is vacuum sealed.

The live contents of the inner container can be produced in various forms such as tablets, capsules, powder, liquid, soft gels, gummy gels etc.,

It can also be used in various forms such as probiotics, all live products, various vitamin supplements, nutraceuticals, or pharmaceuticals, all of which are sensitive to oxygen, moisture, and heat.

Vacuum packaging will be more appealing to people than the traditional style of packaging because of the well-known benefits of this kind of packaging.

Overall Structure of invention:

A package-in-a-vacuum-sealed-package system

An outer package, vacuum sealed, contains an inner package;

An inner package, inside the outer package, with contents inside the inner package.

The Outer Package

Outer package materials (body and closure): Could be glass, metal, plastic, wood, fiber, or any other material;

Outer package shapes (body and closure): Could be round, square, rectangular, triangular, hexagonal, star shaped, or any shape, associated with bottle, jar, box, or any other shaped container.

Outer package colors (body and closure): Could be amber, blue, black, green, and any other color;

Outer package size (body): Could be from 0.5 OZ to 1,000 OZ by capacity, or 5 mm to 1,000 mm by diameter, or 5 mm to 1,000 mm by side measurement, and any other size;

Outer package statuses:

Vacuum sealed, contains an inner package.

Oxygen concentration between 0% to 20.8%, standard concentration ≤0.5%,

Pressure ranges corresponding to ‘degree of vacuum’ between 1×10⁵ Pa to 1×10^(0.0) Pa.

The Inner Package

Inner package materials (body and closure): Could be glass, metal, plastic, wood, fiber, and any new material;

Inner package shapes (body and closure): Could be round, square, rectangular, triangle, hexagon, star shaped, or any other shape; Associated with bottle, jar, pouch, sachet, bag, box, or any other shape container;

Inner package colors (body and closure): Could be amber, blue, black, green, and any other color;

Inner package size (body): Could be from 0.2 OZ to 990 OZ by capacity, or 2 mm to 990 mm by diameter, or 2 mm to 990 mm by side measurement, and any other size;

Inner package statuses: Not vacuum sealed, tradition packaging, contains contents.

Inner package contents form: Could be capsules, soft gels, tablets, powders, liquids, gummies, and any other form;

Inner package contents of materials: Could be vitamins, minerals, dietary supplements, nutrients, sports nutrition, herbs, and other live (“life”) products/ingredients. 

1. A packaging system, comprising: an outer package and an inner package, said inner package being disposed within said outer package, wherein said inner package comprises live contents disposed therein, and wherein said outer package is vacuum sealed while said inner package is disposed therein.
 2. The packaging system as recited in claim 1 wherein said outer package comprises an oxygen concentration between 0% to 20.8%.
 3. The packaging system as recited in claim 2 wherein said outer package comprises a pressure range between 1×10⁵ Pa to 1×10¹⁰ Pa.
 4. The packaging system as recited in claim 1 wherein said outer package comprises a glass jar.
 5. The packaging system as recited in claim 1 wherein said outer package comprises at least one of the following materials: glass, metal, plastic, wood, and fiber.
 6. The packaging system as recited in claim 5 wherein said outer package comprises at least one of the following colors: amber, blue, black, and green.
 7. The packaging system as recited in claim 6 wherein said outer package comprises a volume between 0.5 ounces (oz) to 1,000 ounces (oz).
 8. The packaging system as recited in claim 1 wherein said inner package is not vacuum sealed.
 9. The packaging system as recited in claim 8 wherein the live contents disposed within said inner package comprise probiotics.
 10. The packaging system as recited in claim 8 wherein the live contents disposed within said inner package comprise at least one of the following form: capsules, soft gels, tablets, powders, liquids, gummies.
 11. The packaging system as recited in claim 8 wherein said inner package comprises a traditional probiotics bottle.
 12. The packaging system as recited in claim 11 wherein said inner package comprises a volume between 0.2 ounces (oz) and 990 ounces (oz). 